Bengaluru: From quiet to cacophonous, Indiranagar rises in protest

Bengaluru: When it is Saturday night, the city’s party animals give up their ties and collared shirts to celebrate the weekend. But for those who grew up in a quiet residential neighbourhood, the noise of blaring music and drunken revelry catches them off guard.

Residents of HAL 2nd Stage are now up in arms against this unchecked commercialisation of their area. They assembled to protest against the haphazard way their neighbourhood has grown.

They marched on the streets at 8 pm, when party goers begin their pub crawl. Their poster read "Indiranagar's top crimes are drugs and prostitution. Is this the neighbourhood you would like to see your children grow up in?"

Resident of HAL 2nd stage, Aruna Newton has stated in the poster, “A walk down at 1 am can make you go deaf and dumb. Children studying for exams might as well give up. Vehicles are parked on the pavement, so we walk in the middle of the road risking life and limb."

Chain snatching, prostitution, mugging, drunken revelry on the roads, drag races and drug peddling are the other serious issues plaguing this community. While all this rule the night, the residents suffer in the day too.

"Have you come home and waited hours to get your own vehicle into your compund? Or find that you can't get out of your house because there is no space?" the residents complain.

Other issues highlighted by them include garbage pile up, rats running around and the four decades old sanitation system, which is under heavy strain. High chemical content from microbreweries spills into their drains, they added.

Indiranagar residents had raised their voice against illegal commercialisation earlier too, though not much has changed since. Citizens now believe taking to streets was the only way to wake up the authorities.